Dotfiles for NixOS: Productive, Modular, and Declarative

Table of Contents

• Goals
• Configuration Philosophy
• Setup
• Essential Tools
  • Terminals
  • Shells
  • Editors
  • Utilities & Automation
  • Windows Management
  • Files Management
• Themes
• Conclusion

Goals

• Deepen my understanding of NixOS and its ecosystem through hands-on, declarative configuration.
• Enhance my productivity by streamlining daily tasks with thoughtfully chosen tools and automation.

Configuration Philosophy

All configurations are managed declaratively, leveraging NixOS modules and per-tool config files. This ensures:

• Reproducibility: The environment can be rebuilt or migrated easily.
• Modularity: Each tool's configuration is isolated and easy to update. Host-specific and user-specific logic is decoupled.
• Consistency: Theming and formatting are unified across editors, shells, and productivity tools.
• Automation: Integrated pre-commit hooks (via prek) and CI workflows ensure code quality with statix, treefmt, and secret scanning.

Setup

• Operating System: NixOS: A flexible, declarative Linux distribution that enables reproducible system and user environments.
• Dotfiles Manager: Dotter: (Optional) Manage your configuration files across machines for easy onboarding and migration.

Essential Tools

This curated selection empowers a focused, efficient, and enjoyable workflow. All tools are configured declaratively and integrated for consistency across the environment.

Terminals

• ghostty: Fast, modern, and hackable GPU-accelerated terminal emulator with superior shell integration.
• kitty: Feature-rich, GPU-based terminal emulator used as a robust secondary option.

Shells

• fish: User-friendly, smart, and interactive shell with powerful autosuggestions, syntax highlighting, and optimized startup performance.
• nushell: A new type of shell that treats everything as data.

Editors

• evil-helix: A modal code editor inspired by Neovim and Kakoune, optimized for speed.
• lazyvim: Feature-rich Neovim configuration built for productivity and extensibility.
• zed: High-performance, collaborative code editor with native Nix support.
• fresh-editor: Terminal-based text editor with LSP support.

Utilities & Automation

• atuin: Magical shell history that replaces your default history with a SQLite database.
• bat: A cat clone with syntax highlighting and Git integration.
• borgmatic: Simple, configuration-driven backup software for Borg Backup.
• btop: Modern, interactive resource monitor showing CPU, memory, and network usage.
• delta: A syntax-highlighting pager for Git, diff, and grep output.
• fd: A simple, fast and user-friendly alternative to 'find'.
• jujutsu (jj): A Git-compatible DVCS that is simple, powerful, and safe.
• lazygit: Simple terminal UI for git commands.
• mise: Polyglot tool manager, replacing asdf for development environment management.
• ripgrep (rg): Extremely fast line-oriented search tool.
• starship: Minimal, blazing-fast, and infinitely customizable prompt for any shell.
• television: Any-input fuzzy finder for the terminal.
• topgrade: Upgrade everything at once.
• zellij: Terminal workspace multiplexer with a focus on ergonomics and ease of use.

Windows Management

• niri: A scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor focused on ergonomics.
• dms (DankMaterialShell): Integrated bar, launcher, and system controls for a modern desktop experience.

Files Management

• yazi: Blazing-fast terminal file manager written in Rust, based on async I/O.
• clifm: The shell-like, command-line terminal file manager.
• broot: A new way to navigate directory trees.

Themes

• Dracula: The primary dark theme applied across all supported applications.

Conclusion

I'm constantly exploring new tools and refining my workflow. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions, suggestions, or want to discuss NixOS and productivity setups!